1742580342000 1717582653000 Standard Record object-110010241 1747160956451 1720630701000 1747159409017 adlib fitz-online adlib-object-110010241 https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110010241 f17c2787-7395-3c5c-a83b-f5a148e69df7 1 person reference agent-189587 adlib-agent-189587 bdb516c5-2fc9-3cc4-9b67-8751f8adffc2 Blagden, Isa person reference agent-18959 adlib-agent-18959 39259c5a-4c1e-374d-9773-12b77ff96b14 Browning, Robert person reference agent-209865 adlib-agent-209865 280af53e-4e0c-30a4-9f80-b4134ed2e0e4 Eckley, Sophia person reference agent-154632 adlib-agent-154632 504a4575-e963-34f0-ae3f-87e61cbf1707 Field, Kate Length mm 136 Width mm 90 Leaf 3 Length mm 179 Width mm 135 Leaf 1 Length mm 180 Width mm 131 Leaf 2 content description This is a letter written from Rome, Italy. Barrett Browning explains she has not written due to being very ill. She caught a cold going to see the ‘famous swords’ that were a gift for Victor Emmanuel. Due to the heavy rain she fell ill but says now she is ‘up again (after a week’s confinement to the bed) and though feeble & pale, ... reviving every hour’. She praises the swords. Robert Browning also had a cold but he was unwell before her and his colds aren’t as severe. Barrett Browning says to Blagden she could not give up a friend due to ‘scandal’. From the Brownings' Correspondence Project: “Part of the manuscript is missing, possibly a sheet consisting of four pages. Presumably, the missing text concerned EBB’s estrangement from Sophia Eckley”. Barrett Browning asks about rumours regarding Savoy. She is glad that Blagden is better. She says ‘If I had staid in Florence, Isa, I should probably have ended there in the body– I am grown very susceptible, & am not much worth the trouble of keeping alive.’ She says it's hard to have a head full of poems when it makes one’s heart ‘beat so’ to write them. She has still written something new for Chapman, which she predicts he will ‘patriotically refuse to print’. She discusses Pen taking a fall from his horse and how he gets on with his lessons including doing well with Latin. She says that Mrs Alexander ‘will bear her grief better’ than Blagden supposes (perhaps in reference to the death of Louisa Alexander). Barrett Browning praises Kate Field for being a ‘true, brave heart’ and that this time she hasn’t ‘fallen among thieves’ (presumably a reference to her misplaced affection for Sophia Eckley). She thanks Blagden for the poems she has sent. This letter has been transcribed in 'The Brownings' Correspondence', vol. 27, pp. 148–150 (Kansas: Wedgestone Press, 2020). It is transcribed online via The Brownings' Correspondence project, numbered 4582. GBR/280/MS.1.R-1917/5/113 1 accession number GBR/280/MS.1.R-1917/5/113 110010241 priref 110010241 old reference no. Browning(EB)/G87 old reference no. Browning(EB)/214 uri https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110010241 https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110010241 reference agent-149638 adlib-agent-149638 7376d833-d0a7-3be0-916e-9c892b7a24d8 The Fitzwilliam Museum 1860 1860 1860 1860-01-25 1860 Wednesday Thursday [25–26 January 1860] 1 1860 1860 1860-01-26 reference agent-164438 adlib-agent-164438 134c98ee-69a6-3752-982b-477276489b51 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett reference agent-18959 adlib-agent-18959 39259c5a-4c1e-374d-9773-12b77ff96b14 Browning, Robert MS Letter, Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Isa Blagden object OBJECT